Collapse of the Obama Worldview

Since the days of the Carter presidency, America has recognized Iran as a nation that sponsors “state terrorism,” and as such, the past five Presidents have refused to engage with Iran’s “leader.” But if there is nothing objectively good or bad about nations, then the U.S. has no reason to ostracize a nation that sponsors terrorism. Thus, candidate Obama proffered a plan for a new, “post-Bush” approach to Iran, and announced that he would meet with Ahmadinejad.

Along with his convictions about collectivism and relativism, President Obama also seems to adhere to “internationalism.” This is the assumption that global wellbeing is more important than the interests of any one, particular nation, and that global good is achieved only when individual nations operate in concert with one another. These three philosophical assumptions likely led to candidate Obama’s promise that the “first thing” he would do as President would be to end the “senseless war” in Iraq.

But running for the presidency is one thing, and actually being President is another. And while the three philosophical platforms of collectivism, relativism and internationalism made for some enticing campaign rhetoric, they have not made for a better world – not for America, and not for anyone else.

The President has found that the war in Iraq is pragmatically impossible to end right now. Iran has responded to our President’s friendliness with taunting, jeering, and insults. And despite the President’s sharp increase in U.S. foreign aid to Hamas and the Palestinians, the Muslim world is as dangerous, and as hostile to the West as it has ever been (an effigy of President Obama was stamped on and beaten in the streets of Tripoli last week).

This flawed worldview has been painfully apparent in the midst of several recent world events. When the Egyptian uprising began earlier this year, President Obama initially urged “calm” while Vice President Biden insisted that Hasni Mubarak was a “good guy.” Yet the people of Egypt, longing for freedom and to have a voice in how they are governed, thought differently from our President and Vice President, and continued to protest until Mubarak was gone.

And now the “broad coalition” of the United Nations has done what President Obama could not: they made the moral judgment that the murderous tyranny of a Muslim dictator named Muammar Gaddafi was objectively wrong, and needed to be stopped. The President’s commitment to internationalism necessitated a military decision that his own moral relativism would have never allowed.
FIndeed, the Obama worldview has collapsed. But what does this mean for American influence in the future?